Pizza making is generally a labor intensive undertaking. Pizza crusts or shells are produced from a dough substance, and seasoned tomato sauce is spread evenly over the shell. Finally, other toppings such as cheese, meats, and vegetables are added according to personal taste. In many situations, it is advantageous to produce pizzas as fast as possible. This is the case in the manufacture of frozen pizzas.
It is simply not cost effective to manually produce individual frozen pizzas. In order for the manufacturer to achieve a suitable profit margin, frozen pizzas must be produced rapidly with as little human intervention as possible. Manufacturers have incorporated many different devices in the pizza making operation to automate certain tasks. Chief among these tasks is the addition of toppings. For instance, U.S. Pat. No. 3,525,374 describes an automated pizza meat dispenser; U.S. Pat. No. 4,771,726 describes an automated device for adding a flowable material, such as pizza sauce, to a food target, U.S. Pat. No. 4,801,097 describes a food ingredient dispensing device; U.S. Pat. No. 5,171,367 and U.S. Pat. No. Re. 36,178 describe apparatuses for applying pizza sauce to a pizza; and U.S. Pat. No. 5,523,101 describes a multi-purpose applicator.
Generally, automated pizza sauce dispensing devices include dispensing manifolds having baffles or diffuser plates for uniformly distributing a flowable pizza sauce about a pattern plate which ultimately delivers the flowable food material to a pizza shell, U.S. Pat. No. 5,407,102 and U.S. Pat. No. Re. 36,178 include such baffles, as do Pizzamatic Sauce Dispenser Models 2100 and 2400.
The baffles of the prior art are often uniquely manufactured for the sauce dispenser application depending on the consistency, viscosity, and volume of the sauce applied to the shell. However, frozen pizza makers frequently change the style of sauce applied to their pizza shells. Since pizza sauces vary in consistency and viscosity it would be advantageous to design a single baffle which will uniformly distribute many different types of pizza sauce about a pattern plate.
Therefore, there is a need for an apparatus for adding a flowable material to a shell for use in the pizza making industry as described herein.